New Caledonia set to become high per capita emitter

Environmental groups say New Caledonia will become one of the world's biggest carbon emitters per capita due to expansion of the French Pacific territory's nickel production.

The World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International have written to New Caledonia's President Harold Martin claiming the territory's carbon emissions will almost triple if two proposed nickel plants open.

Hubert Geraux, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund in New Caledonia, has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat he wants the government respond to civil society's sustainable development concerns.

"I hope that in the next days or next weeks we will have a concrete response to our questions," he said.

Mr Geraux says it is New Caledonia's tiny population and the nickel industry's high energy requirements that make the French Pacific territory such a high per capita carbon emitter.

"The situation is due to our small population, because we're only 270,000 people," he said.

"At the same time we have important development of mining projects."

"The nickel industry needs a lot of energy to transform the minerals in nickel."